Ukraine LIVE: Putin issues another nuclear threat as he prepares missile and taunts West

Vladimir Putin has lost more than 95,000 soldiers during his invasion of Ukraine as reports suggest Russian forces are considering fleeing from the Luhansk region in the east.

By Tom Watling, Ciaran McGrath, Sean Meleady

23:05, Wed, Dec 14, 2022 | UPDATED: 23:06, Wed, Dec 14, 2022

Russia: Installation of a rocket into a silo in the Kaluga region

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Vladimir Putin has issued another thinly veiled nuclear threat to the West after pictures showed a Yars strategic missile for being prepared for combat. In the clip, the massive projectile is shown being place in a silo at the Kozelsk military compound in Russia’s western Kaluga region.

Russia has prepared a Yars missile for combat in a thinly veiled nuclear threat (Image: NC)

Yars missiles are capable of striking targets in the US and Britain.

Separately, Ukrainian Armed Forces are preparing to recapture cities to the north of the administrative capital of Luhansk in a sweeping counter offensive similar to that of the retaking of Kharkiv in September.

It comes as a prominent Russian military blogger accused Putin’s military of a “crisis in strategic planning” and the British Ministry of Defence suggested “factional tensions likely extend to the top of Russia’s military hierarchy” over reports that Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov could have been fired by the Russian President over his poor campaign in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a Russian soldier captured by Ukraine has described how he was well-looked after while in captivity, debunking myths about the “horrors” reported in Russian media.